Brighton City Utilities director Tim Krugh told city council at its meeting Thursday that video footage taken of the line shows that it’s cracked and fractured in several places. The sewer line is nearly 80 years old, dating from 1939. The 8-inch sewer main, which is 25 feet deep, runs from Church Street to the south end of the island that separates northbound and southbound Rickett. The project involves lining 2,800 feet of sewer line– slightly over one-half mile.

Krugh said the work needs to be done as soon as possible because the line is “ready to fail” in two locations at any moment. He added that time is also of the essence in order to get the work done before the frost sets in. Krugh said that $50,000 of the work would be covered by remaining funds in last year’s CIP budget and another $40,000 would come from this year’s budget, leaving only about $30,000 that would need to be covered from other funds.

Because of the emergency nature of the problem, whether the city can skip a bidding process was discussed, but city attorney Paul Burns said the law requires the city to go solicit bids and accept the lowest qualified bid. Council voted unanimously to initiate a bidding process and spend up to $120,000 for the work. The bids will come back to council in two weeks for a final vote. (TT)